Awesome Idolomantis shots

[guapoalto049]

I took a few shots on the scope of an Idolo foreleg. I could have gone higher mag but you can't really tell what you're looking at @ 18,000 X!

Tarsus:

Tibia:

More tib:

Closer tibia:

Femur:

Apical hook:

 

[guapoalto049]

MORE SHOTS

Femoral interspinal hairs?

I'd hate to be a fly:

Surface of the moon? Idolo hair?

Cool surface:

 

[Mex_Ghost]

:blink: :blink: :blink:

with out words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Ditto, I agree, wild b & w shots, great looking!

 

[cuervo]

Amazing shots They look like giant teeth,love the broken ones

 

[guapoalto049]

Thanks everyone!

They're actually gold coated, unfortunately electron microscopes don't take color pics!

 

[infinite213]

Awesome, must have set you back a good $150,000 for that scope.

 

[guapoalto049]

Haha set the school back, apparently its around $310,000. I'm not sure if that includes the machine that gold coats the specimen.

The process of coating with gold is almost as cool as the sample itself. Its a gas flow sputter coater that has a mist of gold slowly coat the forearm. There is a purpleish haze in the tank which is awesome to see.

 

[sporeworld]

(wow)

 

[angelofdeathzz]

amazing shots, is that mantis alive? if it's coated in gold I guess not???

 

[dgerndt]

WOAH. Intensely amazing pictures. It's so odd to see mantids' hairs, because you really can't see them when you're just holding one or looking through a plastic container.

 

[guapoalto049]

@angelofdeathzz: I had a female subadult Idolo eat one of her sisters, two days after a clean molt. She left one of the forelegs so I saved it for imaging. I think I'm going to try and get some forearm shots of other species, or if anyone really wants me to take one of their sample I'd be more than glad to run it!

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Oh man that sucks, some people keep saying how non-aggressive they are, I don't see it? mine will knock each other into next week if I try to keep them together. not like the almost playful boxing my violins do, I'm talking death blows or like yours the munch down.

Everyone that has had Idolos knows the the pain of premature death from one thing or another. there a wicked species just not lucky.

I'll guess they fought over a fly one caught and then it got ugly...

But hey now you got a cool piece of bling you can wear around if you want.(Ha-Ha)

 

[guapoalto049]

Yeah I think it was a fight over a fly. They eat roaches straight from the tweezers too, unlike the violins. I would have been really really upset if she ate a male, but alas I had no male to lose.

Haha yeah mantis bling, thats what all the celebs are wearing these days!

 

[animalexplorer]

Really cool images! One of my L7 female diabolicas takes flies right out of my fingers everytime. There strength is pretty impressive. I've had her hold onto my fingers while she eats, She thinks I'm a big bug, and tugs my finger in closer, she bit me a couple of times although it doesn't hurt.

 

[Slinkytreekreeper]

The spiral grooving on the spikes is stunning, thanks for posting man, they are fantastically revealing. How about a compound eye, would that still come out with this technique?

How does the magnification system change from camera to microscope then? If I could get there yet then about 10-15x magnification on a DSLR would get that close/fov, is this something to do with the focal distance?

More!

 

[guapoalto049]

Yeah compound eyes turn out really neat, I don't have any mantid heads to put in there though.

The camera is built in to the microscope and goes directly to a computer, so it just depends on the magnification of the machine. You can change the focal length to get the best resolution at higher mags. I looked around for about three hours, but these shots showed the most interesting things.

I also looked at my shield mantis ooth that never hatched. I couldn't find anything worth photographing so I just tossed the sample.

 

[Mex_Ghost]

I would like to see adult male anthennas at that magnification!!!

saludos

 

[Arwen9]

Nice pics. B)